Business is booming

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If you're thinking of remodeling your home, you've got plenty of company. The housing and remodeling industries are booming, according to a pair of reports out in mid-2017.

Home improvement and repair spending was healthy and stable growth was expected through the first half of 2018, according to the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.

According to the Center's Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA), annual increases in remodeling expenditures were expected to remain at or above 6 percent through the second quarter of 2018.

“The remodeling market continues to benefit from a stronger housing market and, in particular, solid gains in house prices, which are encouraging owners to make larger investments in their homes,” said Chris Herbert, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies. “Yet, weak gains in home sales activity due to tight inventories in many parts of the country is constraining opportunities for more robust remodeling growth given that significant investments often occur around the time of a sale.”

LIRA did project that annual increases in remodeling expenditures will soften somewhat moving forward, according to a news release.

In a separate study, the Center declared the national housing market fully recovered from the depths of the housing crisis. “A decade after the onset of the Great Recession, the national housing market has, by many measures, returned to normal: housing demand, home prices, and construction volumes are all on the rise, and the number of distressed homeowners has fallen sharply,” the Center said in a news release announcing its “State of the Nation's Housing 2017” report. “However, high demand and tight supply are pushing up housing costs and adding to concerns about affordability.”

National home prices finally passed the pre-recession peak in 2016, according to the report, and prices were up in 97 of the nation's 100 largest metropolitan areas in 2016.

The report also had an optimistic outlook on the coming decade, projecting that housing demand will soar as both millennials and baby boomers age.